Her Blytheville City Council seat declared vacant four days ago, Carol White sat in the front row of the Blytheville Municipal Courtroom with a stack of documentation Tuesday night, waiting for the Blytheville City Council meeting to begin.
Like the rest of the room full of citizens, White left without hearing any city business conducted or any discussion.
Only councilwomen Shirley Overman and Shirley Connealy, Blytheville Mayor Barrett Harrison and city attorney Mike Bearden sat at the Council table, waiting for a quorum that didn't come.
The City Council needed one more member for a quorum to conduct city business, but after the crowd waited 15 minutes Harrison re-entered the room and announced neither councilmen Mylas Jeffers, R.L. Jones or Monte Hodges would be making the regular Council meeting.
The mayor then said there would be no meeting, apologizing to the crowd.
"I finally got in touch with Councilman Jones," Harrison told the crowd. "He tells me that Mylas Jeffers has no intentions of being here tonight either. Unfortunately we didn't know about that until just this moment. Mr. Hodges is out of town on vacation. So I want to apologize to everyone that came out tonight to be a part of this public meeting. This month's meeting will have to be rescheduled for another date and time.
"And it's very unfortunate -- we had some business we really needed to take care of. A matter of police cars, there were a couple of people on the agenda that wished to speak. I apologize. We needed one more person to have a quorum tonight and unfortunately they chose not to attend. Thank ya'll for coming."
The special Council meeting was rescheduled for noon today.
Tuesday night, Jones said he told Harrison a few days ago he would not be able to make the meeting. At the time of the planned meeting, he had Jim Harris Appliance Repair at his home, repairing his refrigerator.
Jeffers said this morning, "I had some personal issues I had to deal with."
Meanwhile, Jones noted this morning he told the mayor last week he would not be able to make Tuesday's meeting.
"We weren't boycotting the meeting," Jones said. "When we had that luncheon last week, we had asked the mayor to move the meeting to the 26th so Hodges can vote on some of these issues."
After the crowd disbursed Tuesday night, Harrison insinuated otherwise.
"I asked him (Jones) if he knew whether or not Mr. Jeffers was coming because I had a big crowd here," Harrison said. "It was only fair to them to let them know if they needed to stay or if we needed to stay. He said, 'No, Mr. Jeffers isn't coming.' I asked why and he said, 'because they had asked if we could have the meeting next week.' I told them we couldn't if we were going to deal with the open seat on the City Council. The law simply does not allow us to do that at any meeting other than a regular meeting. He argued that it would be our regular meeting; we would be taking up regular city business, etc., etc., etc. I tend to agree with him somewhat, but the city attorney and the Arkansas Municipal League tell me that that wouldn't be considered a regular meeting because they voted on an ordinance in January to establish a regular meeting date (the third Tuesday of each month)."
White was appointed to fill new Mississippi County Sheriff James Sanders' Ward 1, Position 2 seat at the April 28 City Council meeting, which was moved from its original April 21 date because Harrison was out of town.
On May 5, White, who moved here from Minnesota in 2007, registered to vote at the Blytheville Courthouse. She registered to vote again Thursday, after learning she inadvertently checked "yes" to a voter registration application question that asked, if she had been adjudged mentally incompetent. She also failed to check the box asking if she was 18 or older, which was directly above the mentally incompetent question.
Because White was not a registered voter here at the time of her appointment, the appointment was null and void, Bearden said, arguing she was not a qualified elector at the time.
He added she was not appointed a regular meeting either, as required by law.
"Everything's in question," Bearden said. "That's why my opinion suggested we do it in June."
On Friday, Harrison followed Bearden's advice, vacating White's seat.
"In light of all the controversy surrounding this appointment, why would anybody do anything to take a chance on Ms. White or some other person who might be appointed of it being questioned," Harrison said of filling the seat on Tuesday. "Why would you dare do anything that might question the legality of Ms. White's appointment or someone else's? So we chose to have the meeting at the proper time, and unfortunately now it will be 30 days before the Ward One residents have another person representing them on the City Council. It's very, very disappointing."
Overman said it was inconsiderate of Jeffers not tell tell anyone he planned to miss the meeting.
"I came here at 4 o'clock this afternoon for a Utility Committee with Mr. Jones, and unfortunately, I was not notified that we wouldn't have that meeting," Overman said. "And then at the 5 o'clock meeting, I knew that Councilman Jones was not coming. I did not know that Councilman Jeffers was not coming. He should have at least let us know whether he was going to be here or not."
Added Connealy, "I feel like it should be noted they (Jones and Jeffers) were voted in here by conscientious constituents, and yet they're voting the way they want to vote and not the way the constituents expect them to do. And not coming tonight, shows us what we're dealing with."
mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com